Ok, this will catch things up for a while.

In the latter half of June I was fortunate to be able to join my brothers and some of my nephews in our third trip to the Boundary Waters Canoe Wilderness Area in Northern Minnesota. This has turned in to an every other year trip for us and is a great time to get away, relax, enjoy good company and great fishing. This year we spent 9 days on the water. Our route covered about 75 miles with about 10 miles of portages. If you include all our side trips and fishing we easily covered 100 miles. The weather was wetter than we have experienced before, but nothing we hadnt prepared for. (Seems to be a common theme wherever I go this year.) We carried all our food and gear for the 9 day trip except for the fish we caught to supplement dinner. I managed to lose a fishing rod and reel the second day when the fish I was trying to let go flipped the wrong way and knocked the rod in the water. Fortunately we learned a few years ago that extra gear is a good idea, so I fished with my backup gear the rest of the trip. To prevent camera gear getting wet I used my trusty Lowe Pro Dry Zone. It easily held my 1Ds Mk III, 24-105 and 70-200 lenses, a 1.4x extender, extra battery, cards, and filters. It did mean I had two packs to carry each time we portaged – along with taking my turn carrying the canoe. I also brought my Gitzo 1227 tripod with an Acratech Ballhead and leveling base.

This is primarily a canoeing and fishing trip with a few opportunities to take pictures. Its often a bit dicey trying to get the camera out while in the boat, so I didnt do much of that. The result is not nearly as many images as I would usually take in a 9 day trip. We had lots of good times and are all looking forward to doing it again in two years. The images from this trip are in Boundary Waters 2010. Hopefully you can get an idea of what a beautiful place this is.

Jeff

Lower Part of Upper Basswood Falls